'Thunder From Down Under' male dancers take down Las Vegas intruder

John Doe

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

The booking photo of a man identified by Las Vegas police only as John Doe. Police say the man, who apparently provided a fake name after his arrest Tuesday, is accused of looting a Vegas theater dressing room and of firing a handgun before he was tackled by performers.

The booking photo of a man identified by Las Vegas police only as John Doe. Police say the man, who apparently provided a fake name after his arrest Tuesday, is accused of looting a Vegas theater dressing room and of firing a handgun before he was tackled by performers. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)

John M. Glionna

LAS VEGAS – This time, the thunder wasn’t coming from “Down Under,” but from the locker room of the popular male revue on the Las Vegas Strip, where an intruder was injured after he was found in a secure backroom at an Excalibur Hotel and Resort theater.

The suspect, a male in his 20s, was apparently attempting to steal items belonging to the male dancers, most from Australia, who perform under the name “Thunder From Down Under.”

“He was in a restricted area,” Officer Laura Meltzer, a public information officer for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told The Times.

Authorities say the man entered the back room about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while the show was going on. Several performers confronted the suspect when they saw him with their property, police said. The suspect then pulled out a handgun and a struggle ensued.

The intruder fired a shot into the air, but apparently no one was hit, Meltzer said. One person received a powder burn from the impact of the shot and was treated at the scene.

Security held the suspect at the theater until police arrived.

The popular 90-minute revue features muscular male dancers and is advertised as including “dynamic dance routines, barely there costumes, state-of-the-art lighting and chiseled abs.”